We need to rethink our economic assumptions

The author advocates that we move past neoliberalism- the dominate economic paradogm.

To defeat Trump in the upcoming election, Democrats are advancing a set of proposals engineered to excite their base: a single payer health system, college for all, a guaranteed jobs program. All are worthy of debate but perhaps the problems go deeper. Perhaps they go to the core of our beliefs about how the world works, what makes the economy tick, and how this relates to human welfare.

The dominant paradigm right now is what is sometimes called Neoliberalism which I define as a belief in the efficiency of markets. Those on the left believe that a market economy needs more than a little help from government. There are social costs and benefits that markets ignore; economic downturns are not self-correcting; and a lack of competition or transparency can harm consumers. By addressing these and other shortcomings, government can free the market to do what it does best. Still, the central belief is that markets are the most efficient way to organize a society and by extension optimize individual freedom.

Critics of this paradigm note that it is fundamentally flawed. Human beings are not just consumers, they donít always behave rationally, and they donít always maximize their own well-being. They need a sense of community, they care about the welfare of others, and their sense of what matters goes well beyond a larger GDP. They respond not just to economic incentives but to the desire for respect from their peers, to social norms, and to moral or religious principles. There is an efficient allocation of resources to go with every possible allocation of dollar votes and the distribution of dollar votes should be a communal decision arrived at by democratic means.

Read the rest at the link. The author gets it wrong at the end of the article about taxes and government revenue,

The author advocates that we move past neoliberalism- the dominate economic paradogm.

Read the rest at the link. The author gets it wrong at the end of the article about taxes and government revenue,

So you hate liberalism and democracy? NOT GOOD!

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. --H.L. Mencken,

Critics of this paradigm note that it is fundamentally flawed. Human beings are not just consumers, they don’t always behave rationally, and they don’t always maximize their own well-being. They need a sense of community, they care about the welfare of others, and their sense of what matters goes well beyond a larger GDP. They respond not just to economic incentives but to the desire for respect from their peers, to social norms, and to moral or religious principles.

That much I agree with but I doubt liberal individualists do.

Edmund Burke: "In vain you tell me that Artificial Government is good, but that I fall out only with the Abuse. The Thing! the Thing itself is the Abuse!"

Human beings are mostly mindless consumers of whatever is being peddled. They are often hulled into bad decisions by tricky marketing, as the financial success of the glow ball warming cultists, the socialists, and the race baiting poverty pimps deminstrates.

They are statically reprrsentabke and thus does the dark science of economics establish camps on both sides of any argument...because liars can figure and they do love their socialism.

Freedom Requires Obstinance.

We the People DID NOT vote in a majority Rodent Congress, they stole it via election fraud.